Strategies for sustainable land management in fringe areas of metropolitan region

Abstract

'Land Degradation' is one of the major environmental issues, as more than half of the total land is under degradation. Many global initiatives are taken to control land degradation, and is also included in ' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's) formulated by United Nations which aims to promote sustainable use of Land and Vegetation in order to achieve 'Net Land Degradation in 2030's. (Ref: FAO, UNEP). Also, in India, 1/3rd of the land is under degradation for which, Government of India is working to make India land Degradation neutral by 2023. Though, Unsustainable Urban growth, deforestation, Poor land management practices, Loss of biodiversity are few causes of Land degradation, according to FAO, Urban expansion in peri-urban areas has become a major form of land degradation which removes valuable, fragile natural areas and large farmland from production, for which strategies of Sustainable Land Management should be formulated to minimize its future adverse impacts. Hence, it is necessary to address this issue of land degradation in fringe areas & there is need to develop strategies that interlink the various aspects of land management. Sustainable Land Management is an approach and a framework of strategies adopted to improve inter-relationships among Soil quality, Land Quality and Vegetation Quality. Aim of this thesis is 'To prepare strategies for the Sustainable Land Management in the fringe areas of the metropolitan regions to minimize Land degradation', which was achieved by formulating four major objectives which includes : (I) Selection of fringe villages affected by Land Degradation on the basis of LD parameters , (II) Evaluation of Land degradation with the help of spatial and temporal variations in Land Management indicators, (III) Identification of Impacts arising due to degradation (IV) Formulation of appropriate guidelines for sustainable Land Management. Methodology for research was adopted with the help of various literatures regarding framework for evaluating sustainable land management. Case study: Pune is ninth most populous city, and second largest in Maharashtra state and also has the eighth largest metropolitan economy. Research by National Climate Centre says that, Pune is amongst the top 5 district in the country that have ' most significantly degraded Land' and researchers say that, rapid urbanization is responsible for the quality of land which explains need to formulate strategies to reduce land degradation by implementing approaches of sustainable land management. Although , Primary observations in Pune fringes states the rapid increase in built-up area , loss of farmlands, decrease in vegetation along with hill encroachment , this fact is supported by various secondary data observation which explains the Loss of grasslands, shrublands , Forestland and Faunal species which is further analyzed in thesis with the help of spatial and temporal analysis .Since, sustainable land management approach integrates Soil Quality (SQ),Vegetation Quality (VQ), and Land Management Quality (LMQ), therefore, various indexes are calculated to assess Land degradation. Soil Quality Index is alculated by quantifying the means of parameters (Texture, Depth, Fertility index, Nutrient balance ) whereas, Vegetation Quality Index is calculated by computing the NDVI (Normalized Difference vegetation Index ) , and Land Management Quality Index is calculated by ranking different land use classes. A composite index quantifying the level of 'vulnerability to Land Degradation' is calculated for years 1991, 2001 and 2011 as the mean of the different scores of each SQI, LMQI and VQI, and this Composite Index identified the areas undergoing significant land degradation. Hence, Thesis proposes a framework of various strategies aiming to sustainable management to minimize Land degradation. This thesis is an attempt to formulate site specific strategies to reduce land degradation to achieve sustainability through planning for these fringe areas, which has its impacts on Rural as well as urban periphery.